Security in Numbers
by Percabeth484
Summary: There's something new stirring in Olympus, and Eva thinks she knows what it is. Problem is, she can't solve it alone. There doesn't seem to be anyone who can help her out until she bumps into an unlikely group of friends.
1. Chapter 1

In Eva's fourteen years at Camp Half Blood, she'd seen lots of new campers come in. Particularly to her very own cabin. For some reason, there had been a surplus of children of Eirenne in the past two years. All twenty of Eirenne's children had to stay in the Hermes cabin seeing as she didn't have her own cabin.

Eva had always lived at Camp Half Blood and didn't plan on leaving. She taught herself all the subjects she saw fit and trained harder than the rest of the campers. It wasn't that she had many goals for her future, she just wanted to be prepared for the worst. When all her new half-siblings started moving in, however, she was far from ecstatic. Eva was the oldest out of all of them and therefore responsible for the wellbeing of all of them.

The most tolerable sibling of Eva's was by far Jackson. He was twelve years old, yet her understood exactly how she felt. Their mother was the goddess of peace, so most of their siblings stayed away from most training. Eva had always had a knack for sword fighting, so she spent countless hours a week practicing. Jackson was similar to Eva in that he'd lived at Camp Half Blood for most of his life. Growing up in the Hermes cabin gave him insight to archery, so he loved to go out and target practice with whoever he could drag along. The rest of Eirenne's children, however, remained peaceful like their mother.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Jackson cried, pulling on the sleeve of Eva's bright blue sweatshirt. "You're gonna make us late and there won't be a target left to practice at!"

"Calm down," Eva murmured, smearing on a third coat of lip gloss to make it look less baby pink and more hot pink.

Jackson stuck out his bottom lip in a pout. "You don't understand! I need to get in a few hours today! School starts tomorrow and I'll be loaded with homework!"

"It's pouring out," Eva stated. "There won't be anyone there no matter how late we arrive."

"Just hurry up," Jackson pushed.

Eva rolled her eyes and walked out of the Hermes cabin, letting the door slam behind her. She wanted Jackson to realize that she had things she wanted to do today, too. It wasn't like Eva's whole life revolved around babysitting her younger siblings. Jackson scampered out the door behind her and walked with her in silence to the archery course.

As it turned out, Eva was right about being the only people who would be practicing archery in the rain at six in the morning. Well, almost right. There was a young girl at the very end target. Her skin had a green tint to it and her long brown hair was pulled back in a loose yet elegant braid. She was wearing a flowing light yellow dress that reached just below her knees. There was a ring of flowers atop her head like a crown.

"You practice, I'll be right back," Eva said, walking over to the girl.

The girl noticed Eva walking towards her almost right away and started to run off.

"Wait!" Eva cried, chasing after the girl.

It seemed like being chased only made the beautiful girl more nervous. She kept running and running, leaving Eva almost out of breath.

"Please, just talk to me," Eva begged.

As soon as the girl heard Eva's plea, she stopped dead in her tracks and turned around. Eva hadn't gotten a very good look at her face before she had run away, so she hadn't quite realized what she looked like. She had ears that came to a point at the top and a small yet sharp nose. She truly was stunning.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Eva stated. "It's just that I've never seen you around before. I know all the campers and if you're new, I'd like to get to know you. Maybe we could even become friends?"

The girl looked up shyly, meeting Eva's kind eyes. "My name is Meliae…"

Eva smiled brightly. "Nice to meet you, Maliae. My name is Eva. If I may ask, why exactly are you at Camp Half Blood? Who's your godly parent?"

"I-I don't have one…" Meliae stumbled.

"Oh…" Eva said, not sure what she meant. Everyone at Camp Half Blood was, well, a half-blood. That's just how it worked.

Meliae looked down. "I should go…"

"No, it's fine. Stay. All I want to do is get to know you," Eva said.

"You wouldn't want to know me," Meliae stated.

"Alright, then you can get to know me first. My name is Eva. I've lived at Camp Half Blood for my whole life, meaning fourteen years. My mom is Eirenne and I have nineteen half-siblings. I know everyone here, so I want to know you."

"All you need to know is my name."

"If you don't want to be friends, that's fine. I respect your decision. If you ever change your mind, you can usually find me in the Hermes cabin."

On that note, Eva turned and started back to the target where Jackson was practicing. If she was being honest, she felt a little rejected by Eva. Everyone at camp had been completely fine with meeting her.

"What were you doing?" Jackson asked as Eva sat down in the grass beside his feet.

"None of your business," Eva grumbled.

"You tell me everything," Jackson said. "You even told me about the Uprising. Why can't you tell me something as simple as where you've been for the past five minutes?"

Eva glared at Jackson. It was true that she told him everything, but that didn't mean she wanted him knowing about the first time she'd been rejected by a new camper just by being friendly. He was sure to use it to torment her for weeks.

Eventually, Eva gave in. Jackson was way too sweet to refuse. "You see, I was talking to the girl that was practicing at the end target."

Jackson rolled his eyes. "Obviously. I want to know what happened."

"Well, she started running so I chased after her," Eva started. "After she finally stopped, I tried being friendly with her. It didn't work. She said that I wouldn't want to know her. After that, I left."

"I can't imagine anyone not wanting to be friends with you," said Jackson.

Eva sighed. "I'm going to go back to the cabin."

"But I haven't finished target practice yet!" Jackson complained.

"You can stay here for a while longer. I'll be in the cabin when you come back," Eva promised.

Jackson frowned and turned back to practicing his archery skills. It saddened Eva to see Jackson upset over something she had said, but she let it slide. She was not in the mood to feel worse than she already did. Eva walked back to the Hermes cabin without so much as a glance back at her brother.

Back in the Hermes cabin, Eva knew something was wrong. It was a rainy day and early in the morning, so most of her cabin mates were in the Big House doing puzzles or whatever it is that they did when it was rainy. All the people who stayed at the cabin were all grouped around something. As Eva got closer, she realized it was less of a something and more of a someone.

"What's happening?" Eva inquired, not able to get close enough to see who they were all gathered around.

"It's the new camper," Naomi, one of the oldest unclaimed campers, answered.

"Meliae?" Eva asked.

"His name is Gabe," a camper close to Eva hissed. "Now shh!"

Gabe looked around Eva's age, which was comforting. A new camper in her age group usually made for a new friend. Gabe had raven hair and chestnut brown eyes. Based on his complexion, he was most likely Korean. It was evident that he was talking, or at least moving his mouth, but Eva couldn't hear it because she was too far away.

The residents of the Hermes cabin knew Eva well enough to not be bother by her pushing past all of them to make it to the front to talk to Gabe. She had always been the go to person with new campers. It was probable that lots of them were as confused as Eva was about why she wasn't informed of Gabe.

Eva realized the two people talking to Gabe as Maria and Joe, the only full siblings in the entirety of the Hermes cabin. It wasn't that Maria and Joe were mean, they were just very closed off. They kept everything quiet.

"Excuse me," Eva butted in. "What's going on?"

"We have a new camper," Joe said, clearly annoyed.

"I know," Eva sighed. "I want to know why everyone's crowded around him like we're wild animals and he's a fresh piece of meat."

Gabe looked up, making eye contact with Eva. "There's actually a reason," He said, his voice raspy yet not creepy. "Everyone's super freaked out because my parents are both half-bloods. I'm a half-blood too, but I don't have a 'godly parent'. Instead, I have two godly grandparents."


	2. Chapter 2

Wormy hadn't meant to stick a fork in Xavier's shoulder, it just kind of happened. Xavier had been taunting Wormy yet again. This time, it was about his mom. It was usually about his mom. Wormy was a son of Demeter, and he said that with pride. He liked to embrace who he was. Xavier, on the other hand, was a son of Aphrodite. He had short blonde hair and blindingly white teeth. A big reason Xavier picked on Wormy instead of other campers was because he was… bigger. Gods, even thinking that word made him cringe.

"I'll bet your mom helped grow all this food, huh?" Xavier asked.

Wormy cringed as Xavier sat down next to him on the bench. Not only was Xavier mean, he was incredibly stupid.

"Oh wait, I doubt she could provide enough food in her entire lifetime that could satisfy your hunger for one day," Xavier cracked, laughing hysterically.

The thing was, Wormy had learned to deal with Xavier's mean jokes. Mainly because they weren't all that mean. Maybe if Xavier would spend more time in class and less time buying clothes he'd be able to say something that would actually effect Wormy. It seemed highly unlikely.

Xavier didn't stop with his rude remarks, but Wormy did start to channel them out. It was easier to just concentrate on eating. Today he was having pancakes and oatmeal, so it didn't take much effort.

After a few more jokes, Wormy was fed up. Xavier was always saying these mean things, and he never did anything about it. No one ever did anything about it. Just thinking about how Xavier could get away with this type of behavior made Wormy absolutely pissed.

"Could you just shut up for _one_ minute?!" Wormy screamed.

"Oh, so he _can_ speak," Xavier said. "I thought you were always too busy shoving your face wi-"

Xavier's wisecrack was cut off by his scream. Suddenly all the eyes in the mess hall flew over to the Demeter table. There was a fork in one of the camper's shoulders, after all.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Eva, the head counselor of the Hermes cabin, yelled. "This is the mess hall, not the sword fighting arena!"

"I was just trying to have a friendly conversation with my buddy Wormy here and then he just attacked me!" Xavier cried.

Eva grabbed Xavier's arm. "Let's get you to the Big House before this thing gets infected."

That was the end of it. Everyone just went back to eating their food and talking to their friends. It was no big deal that Wormy had just stabbed someone. Seeing as no one else cared about Wormy's mistake, he decided not to dwell on it. He went back to shoveling his oatmeal into his mouth.

Wormy looked up from his food when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Standing behind him was a girl with long red hair that fell just below the small of her back. She had freckles covering most of her face, but they weren't ugly. Somehow, they just made her even more beautiful.

"I think it's wonderful how you stood up to Xavier," she said, flashing Wormy a blindingly white smile.

"Oh, uh-uh, thanks, I guess…" Wormy stuttered.

"I'm Julia, by the way," she introduced.

"Wormy," he said.

Julia just kept smiling and sat down next to him. "He's always been so so mean, but no one was ever brave enough to stand up to him. Thank you for doing that, even if it was just a little bit violent."

Wormy blushed and looked down. No one had ever really payed much attention to him, let alone compliment him. It was all so new that he didn't quite know what to do. Wormy wasn't sure if she wanted to have a conversation with him or if she was expecting him to compliment her back.

"Well, I should get going…" Julia said, standing up.

"Oh, alright…" Wormy replied, his eyes not looking up from his plate.

Julia leaned down and kissed Wormy's cheek. "I'll see you around."

"Maybe tonight?" Wormy asked hopefully, almost as a second thought.

After a few minutes, Julia answered. "Yeah, I'd like that. Let's meet here at… seven or so?"

"Sounds great to me," Wormy enthused.

With that, Julia walked off. Wormy was too stunned to continue eating. He had just been asked out on a date. Well, it might not even be a real date. It wasn't like she had called it a date or anything. Did she think he thought it was a date? Was it bad if she did? Did Wormy even want to date her?

Wormy was sixteen years old, yet he'd only had one girlfriend. It was silly of him to count Nell Wilson as his girlfriend, but she was the one who suggested it in the first place. It was second grade and everyone else was already "dating" someone or another. Nell was similar to Wormy because she didn't really have any friends. When she had asked him to be her boyfriend, he hadn't thought about it before saying yes. Now, Nell was very popular. She had many more friends than Wormy. But Wormy didn't worry about it because he had stopped going to that school two years ago when he had finally been claimed.

The wait to see Julia again was a long time. In fact, it was right around twelve hours. Wormy had to wait almost half a day to go on his first real date. Most people would spend the whole time getting ready and talking about it with their friends. Wormy didn't have any friends. Even his siblings mostly ignored him. Instead of getting ready for the date, Wormy decided to go what he loved most. Garden.

Camp Half Blood was a huge place housing a lot of people which meant there was not a lot of extra space. The forest, however, did have enough space for what Wormy used it for. Over the course of a year, Wormy had planted a vegetable garden. It was nothing too spectacular, just some peas, tomatoes, carrots, and whatnot. The garden was perfect for any mood Wormy happened to be in.

Lots of Wormy's siblings could grow perfect plants with the snap of their fingers. Wormy could do that too, but he didn't. He prefered to actually plant and care for his vegetables. It gave him more satisfaction when he ate them.

The garden was hidden away behind some bushes so no one could find it unless they were looking. Wormy liked to be alone with his thoughts. When Wormy arrived at his garden, he could sense that something was off, but he couldn't quite place what was different.

As Wormy pulled aside the branches of a bush, he knew exactly what was different. Something had been eating his garden! It was embarrassing to admit, but Wormy was heartbroken that after all the time he spent working in that garden, something ate it before he could. Gods, he just hated thinking about eating! It just tormented him. When he was a kid, all he wished for was to shed off a few extra pounds. It was still something he wished for.

Gardening took Wormy's mind off things and made him lose track of time. By the time he checked his watch, it was five to seven. He was almost late for his date with Julia! Wormy quickly got up and ran as hard as he ever had in his life all the way to the mess hall.

Julia was sitting on one of the tables when Wormy walked into the mess hall. "You're a bit later than I expected."

"I know…" Wormy apologized. "I'm really sorry…"

"It's perfectly alright. Earlier, you said your name is Wormy. Is that your real name or a nickname?" Julia asked.

Wormy answered. "It's a nickname. My real name is Richard."

"Well, Richie," Julia said, smiling widely. "Let's go have a great time."


End file.
